60ft tris underway

With first Grand Prix of the season in Lorient today

Following the carnage in last November's Route du Rhum, it has been busy times for most of the trimaran teams taking part in the Offshore Racing Multihull Association's first Grand Prix of the season in Lorient today and over the weekend.

11 of the 60ft trimarans are taking part. Notable exceptions include Karine Fauconnier's Sergio Tacchini, which is still being completely rebuilt following its near destruction in the Route du Rhum.

One of the boats to look out for will be the Lombard design Sopra Group, where trimaran veteran and double Route du Rhum winner Laurent Bourgnon has taken over the wheel from Philippe Monnet and is racing with several of the old hands like Florence Arthaud and Halvard Mabire.

Following Bertrand de Broc's retirement from the 60ft trimaran class in the Route du Rhum last year, Swiss sailor Steve Ravussin has taken over the helm of Banque Covefi (formerly Fujicolor). Ravussin, who was leading the Route du Rhum last year until his trimaran (the old Foncia) flipped has been training with his team in Lorient since the beginning of this month.

In what is now a highly competitive fleet it will be interesting to see how time in the shed over the winter has affected their relative performances today.

Top favourite must be Jean-Luc Nelias' Belgacom. This is not only a finely developed boat but includes crewman such as match racer Thierry Peponnet and Olympic Finn sailor Sebastien Godefroid. Franck Cammas' Groupama although racing her sixth season is also not to be discounted - Cammas is awaiting the arrival of a new trimaran for next season.

Lalou Roucayrol's Banque Populaire was performing well towards the end of last season and was one of the first boats back in the water this year.


Crew line ups

Belgacom
Jean-Luc Nélias,Grégoire Metz, Peter De Smedt, Luc Bartissol, Thierry Peponnet, Olivier Douillard, Christophe Lassègue, Nacho Postigo, Fred Brousse, Jean-Sébastien Ponce, Laurent Delage.

Sopra Group
Laurent Bourgnon, Florence Arthaud, Thierry Brault, Jacques Delorme, Halvard Mabire, Sylvain Pélissier, Bruno Staub, PM. Bazin, Xavier Dagault, Pierre Trémouille, Denis Charvoz.

Biscuits La Trintaine
Marc Guillemot, Armel le Cléac'h, Jean Baptiste le Vaillant, Manu Le Borgne, Thierry Duprey, Nicolas Raynaud, Antoine Carpentier, Laurent Rivals, Sébastien Thétiot, Gilles André, Fred Le Maistre.

Foncia
Alain Gautier, Nicolas Bérenger, Thierry Briend, Thierry Chappet, Sébastien Col, Loïk Gallon, Antoine Gautier, Albert Jacobsoone, Fabrice Levet, Philippe Péché.

Groupama
Franck Cammas, Tanguy Cariou, Franck Proffit, Philippe Touet, Benoît Briand, Thierry Fouchier, Fabrice Blondel, Eric Coulon, Ewen Le Clech, Ronan Lucas.

Sodebo
Thomas Coville, Denis Pelmont, Jean-Christophe Moussard, Pierre Pennec, Christian Dumard, Fred Guilmin, Hervé Cunningham, Loïc Le Mignon, Jacques Vincent, Knud Frostad, Stéphane Fodor.

Banque Populaire
Lalou Roucayrol, Daniel Souben, Mayeul Riffet, Bruno Laurent, Olivier Lozachmeur, Thierry Poirey, Gilles Favennec, Frédéric Pautler, Jean-Marie Dauris, Bruno Jeanjean,

Banque Covefi
Stève Ravussin, Georges Wagner, Claude Thélier, Nicolas Pichelin, Thierry Douillard, Bertrand Seydoux, Bruno Gillard, Nicolas Avram, Pierre-Yves Moreau, Dominic Vittet.

Bayer CropScience
Jean Maurel, Loïc Lingois, Jean-Christophe Mourniac, Franck Citeau, Julien Cressant, Fred Dahirel, Eric Boiraud, Brice Berthier, Alexis de Cenival, Jochen Krauth, Jan Dekker.

Gitana
Lionel Lemonchois, Benjamin de Rothschild, Nicolas Berthoud, François Denis, Philippe Durr, Nicolas Engel, Jean-Baptiste Epron, Marc Guessard, Jean-Paul Levrel, Yann Marilley, Olivier Wroczynski.

Géant
Michel Desjoyeaux, Jean François Cuzon, Eric Carret, Nicolas Texier, Vincent Riou, Mick Kermarec, Nicolas de Castro, Hervé Jan, Renaud Banüls, Jacques Caraës.